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No need to go cold turkey on movies this weekend — There is a feast of films on Blu-ray and DVD PDF Print E-mail
Entertainment
Friday, 26 November 2010 09:32

By  Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

So you are done eating turkey and spent the day Friday shopping and you have already been to Disney World.

What are you doing to do now Osceola County?

Watch movies of course.

There will be a list of some holiday present DVDs coming soon, but in the mean time here’s a nifty little list of DVD recommendations to watch this week.

 

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — Quirky fun, if you like this kind of thing, Michael Cera is at his neurotic geek best in this story about a young guy (that would be Scott Pilgrim, of course) who obsesses about all the girls he has lost so far in his life and then he meets Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). He must do battle with her deadly seven exes (a skateboarder, vegan rock star, etc.) if he is to woo and win her.

The Universal Studios Home Entertainment release is available in standard DVD as well as a combo pack which includes not only both versions but a digital copy as well.

Bonus features include deleted scenes, bloopers and alternative footage; various commentaries with director Edgar Wright, co-writer Michael Bacall, author of the graphic novel Bryan Lee O’Malley, a plus cast members Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Winstead, Ellen Wong and Brandon Routh, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Kieran Culkin and Mark Webber; featurettes (“Making of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Music,” “You Too Can Be Sex Bob-Omb,” “Visual Effects,” “Sound Work,” and  an Adult Swim Scott Pilgrim vs. The  World animation feature.

The Kids are All Right (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)  — Don’t confuse this with The Who. This nice little film is a different take on the American family with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore playing a long-time partnered lesbian couple with two almost grown children. Complications arise when Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Joni (Mia Wasikowska) find their anonymous sperm donor dad (Mark Ruffalo) and the family is turned upside down.

Aside from having a perfect cast, this funny and poignant film is deserving of many a top ten list for best films of 2010.

Bonus features include:

The Journey to Forming a Family — Director/co-writer Lisa Cholodenko reveals how her five-year long journey to write and bring the film to the screen was motivated by her desire to put down roots and create a family of her own.

The Making of the Kids are All Right —It’s all about family – and cast, and crew.

The Writer’s Process — Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg discuss their writing process.

Feature commentary with  director/co-writer  Cholodenko.

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There are also several new additions to the Warner Archive, that ever-growing library of rare, unusual and classic films from Warner Bros.

Halloween has come and gone, but William Castle horror films are welcome at just about any holiday.

The master of the gimmick film (House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts, The Tingler) provided more thrills for 1950s horror fans with Macabre (1958). The plot (story and cemetery-wise) involves a small-town doctor feverishly trying to find his kidnapped daughter who has been buried alive, before her time is up. The film  has TV’s The Walton’s Ellen Corby in a co-starring  role as well as Jim Backus of Mr. Magoo and Gilligan’s Island fame. Castle’s gimmick this time out:  audience members were provided with a $1,000  insurance policy by Lloyd’s of London is they should die by fright. No, it isn’t that scary.

There is more horror with The Todd Killings, a  curious bit of 1970s film making that was probably only made because of the Manson murders that occurred just a few years earlier. Based on  1960’s thrill-killer Charles Schmidt it is a genuine period piece from 1971. Robert F. Lyons plays Skipper Todd who impresses both young men and women to follow his group. Some wind up dead. The interesting cast includes a pre John Boy Walton Richard Thomas as well as Barbara Bel Geddes, Fay Spain, James Broderick, Gloria Grahame, Edward Asner and Michael Conrad.

The emphasis is more on the comedy in the killer comedy Pretty Maids All in a Row directed by Roger Vadim (Barbarella) and starring Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Telly Salvalas, Roddy McDowall and James Doohan.

This  odd film starring Hudson as a coach and counselor at a university who bed downs many a student and then kills them. It was also written and produced by Star Trek’s Gene Roddenberry.

And even more of the unusual in the Warner Collection,  War of the Buttons.

This family film, set in Ireland, focuses on two warring towns (well the child inhabitants of the towns).  The two groups of boys dislike each other for no other reason than geography, and go to war. They use sticks and stones and the like, and as the war gets more intense it is all about the buttons, the trophies they collect from each other’s clothing.

It’s a fun little film, with lots of insight into growing up.

Fast cars have been in the movies way before The Fast and the Furious franchise. Even back in  1950 they were making them. Hot Rod stars Jimmy Lydon as David (Henry Aldrich in the 1940s film series), who tries to convince his dad that hot rods are not a bad thing. But when his hot rod gets stolen and is involved in an accident, our hero teenager gets the blame. Will good triumph over evil?

All Warner Archive Collection DVDs are made on demand and are only available at the Warner collection website,  www.WarnerArchive.com. Many movies are also available at a digital download.

 

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